A top Chinese official has said his government regards the IPAD trademark as the property of Shenzhen Proview Technology, piling extra pressure on Apple to settle over the alleged unauthorised use of the word.
Yan Xiaohong, the deputy director of China's National Copyright Administration, told reporters in Beijing that the …

the shape of things to come?

The trouble is, if Apple, with all their huge big pile'o'cash and lawyers, can't win a case in China, what hope that any other western company have? It may be the biggest marketplace and so seem highly inviting to try and conquer, but China will always side with their own, whether it's a trademark case like this, or obvious imitations of existing products, like the one BMW lost.

They didn't even search for US trademarks

Re: the shape of things to come?

So what. I have no problem with that. Their country, their patent/trademark laws. I wish more countries would tell patent lawyers (or just Apple) to f**k off to be honest. Apple have made patent trolling their business and deserve everything they get - I only hope China prosecutes for breach of trademark and closes the Apple sweatshops down.

When I was a kid imitation was 'the highest form of flattery' - now it just means money for lawyers.

Actually, they patently did do a trademark search outside the US and paid the people who the report said had the trademark a big wodge of cash. Just the people who the report said had the trademark (apparently) didn't actually have it, someone else in the company did. And they fell out with the first bunch.

If things had been as cut & dried as you seem to believe they were, it wouldn't have wrangled on for months on end.

One thing does make me laugh though - 'Yan Xiaohong, the deputy director of China's National Copyright Administration'

China has a National Copyright Administration? That must be the cushiest job ever....

Re: the shape of things to come?

Quite so. Evidence suggests trading with China is pretty much giving away your IP whether you planned to or not.

A wise man said 'sometimes the only way to win the war is not to fight the battle'. You can forgo the profit of trade with China but keep your IP, or you can trade with them for short-term profit and they will end up eating your lunch. Guess which choice most western company executives will go for?

Keep up

>Did Apple record this supposed Trademark Assignment in China? No.

The answer you're looking for is "yes".

>Does Apple own the iPad Trademark in China? No.

Actually, that's what the case is about; Apple looked for who owned the trademark, bought it off them and now the kerfuffle is about a third party who claims it was theirs all along. Things are made even more murky by the fact that the company claiming ownership is the parent of the company they bought it off.

In reality, this is probably more about Chinese government-owned banks trying to get back the ~$1bn they're owed by a now-bankrupt Proview.

I fully expect Apple to lose this, irrespective of any merits of either side's case or predictable anti-Apple posts on El Reg.

Chinese PIPA

I would like to see China extradite some Apple company bosses for trial over flagrant trademark abuse - heck it's what the US do if somebody abroad dares to breach copyright (or even link to stuff that MAY breach copyright) so I expect they would be in full support if China wanted this to happen - yes?

Surely the US would respect and support China in having and using their own version of PIPA/COICA to protect their companies from international abuse of IP?

Re: Just shewd

Now, admittedly it was a pretty dumb thing to do in actually believing the front operation and not putting a restriction into the clause in the first place, that in the event of the trademark being offered to Apple that it would revert back to "... insert name here ..." for the original purchase price less any fees...

@Shrewd

The accusation in the US court case is that the front company were asked whether this was being acquired for Apple and they denied that it was. Hence the complain about the improper acquisition. Otherwise I'd agree with you that it was shrewd.